Coffee cake is something that is very versatile. Can be served as a dessert, or as a breakfast treat. I have tried many recipes over the past few months and have not been happy with any of them. I broke out my old cookbooks and made one that I have not tried in at least 15 years. It originally came from my grandmother as a staple in her kitchen.
What sets this recipe apart? It doesn’t add raw fruit to the batter so you have fully cooked cake surrounded by undercooked fruit. The cake is also not too sweet, really letting the flavors of the fruit shine through. The best part – you can use almost any fruit. Why just almost…because there are just some fruits that don’t hold up well when cooked. This would not be an ideal cake for a banana or chopped oranges for instance.
Apples, peaches, apricots, pineapple, blueberries or any berry really all make great choices. Turns out the recipe also works well with pecans. I didn’t realize I was out of walnuts when I started putting the apple version of the cake together. I did buy more before I made the blueberry version.
Choose Your Fruit Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Fruit Filling
- 4 cups fruit of choice chopped apples, apricots, peaches, pineapple, or whole blueberries
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ⅓ cups cornstarch
Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar (7 oz)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon mace or nutmeg
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup butter or margarine
- ½ cup chopped walnuts also works well with pecans
Instructions
Make the Fruit Filling
- in a saucepan, combine your fruit and water, simmer covered for about 5 minutes until the fruit is tender. Stir in lemon juice.
- Whisk the cornstarch and sugar in a small bowl. Stir the starch/sugar mixture into the fruit mixture and cook until thickened and bubbly.
- Set aside to cool.
Make the Cake Batter
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and mace. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- Combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla and whisk gently to combine. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix just until blended.
Making the Topping
- Combine the sugar, flour in a bowl. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs, stir in the nuts.
Assembly and Baking
- Spread half of the batter into a greased 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan.
- Spread the cooled fruit over the batter in the pan.
- Spoon the remaining batter in small mounds over the fruit mixture.
- Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter and fruit.
- Bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean.
